UWE Bristol bosses slam Channel 4 over expenses claims

The vice chancellor of UWE Bristol has been thrust into the centre of a university spending scandal over £43,000 in expenses, revealed by Channel 4’s Dispatches programme.

The show aired on Monday night and raised questions about bills that included five-star hotel stays and £10,000 spent on “executive chauffeur driven cars” over an 18-month period.

But UWE bosses and the board of governors have defended the vice chancellor, professor Steve West, and condemned the programme, slamming it as “misleading and inaccurate”.

Sonia Mills, chair of the board of governors, said: “UWE Bristol provided full and transparent details of all senior management team business costs in response to a Freedom of Information request from Dispatches.

“We were not given any opportunity to explain these figures or challenge any of the accusations being made by Dispatches until after they had made their programme and interviewed our students.

“Despite our requests, our comments and corrections were not accurately reflected in the programme.

“We are absolutely appalled that this misinterpretation of the facts was presented to our students and other interviewees in order to manipulate them into giving certain answers that would ensure the programme could tell the story Dispatches wanted to tell.”

West earns £279,532, including salary, benefits and performance-related pay, and UWE says it takes a “wholly open and transparent” approach to its finances. All of the university’s senior team’s expense costs are publicly available on their website.

Dispatches put a lot of emphasis on the £10,000 spent on car hire, but West says he drives his own car or takes public transport wherever possible and only uses a private firm when he has a full schedule and has to travel outside of normal public transport hours

UWE stressed that no UK student fees are used for any part of the costs of travelling and living internationally.

Dame Glynis Breakwell resigned from Bath University in the wake of a pay scandal

This latest controversy follows a high-profile campaign against the high salaries of top university bosses, which led to the resignation of Bath University’s vice chancellor professor Dame Glynis Breakwell, whose annual salary was £451,000.

Gillian Camm, pro chancellor for UWE Bristol, said: “We are incredibly mindful of the challenges for university students right now, with the pressure of finances, trying to find a job when they graduate and all of the uncertainties they face.

“Our job at UWE Bristol is to ensure we provide the best environment for them to thrive and flourish. We see building local, national and international partnerships and the opportunities and experiences that these create as an essential part of this.

“Professor West and his team have created an institution that makes a significant contribution to the regional economy and supports local jobs, provides fantastic opportunities for an increasingly diverse student population, and makes an impact around the world with the work that it does.”

Read more: Bristol MPs: ‘bloated pay of university bosses cannot be justified’